The present invention relates generally to the field of trigger systems for semi-automatic weapons and specifically to the use of a trigger assembly on AR-15 type rifles; The AR-15 rifle is the civilian version of the military M-16 rifle and is sometimes referred to as the Mouse Gun.
The trigger assembly of the present invention is designed to help improve the accuracy and precision of the individual shooting a firearm by increasing the control that the individual (a shooter) has over trigger operation and thereby control over the discharge of the firearm. Control of the trigger operation is especially important in match shooting tournaments where the goal is to have better accuracy and precision than the other contestants. Total control over the operation of the trigger assembly, and thus the discharge of the firearm, is crucial.
Ideally the shooter wants to be able to discharge his or her firearm by exerting as little force as possible on the trigger so that there is minimal perceptible movement of the trigger. The more force and perceived motion required to pull or actuate the trigger, the harder it is to accurately hit the target since it is harder for the shooter to exactly determine when the firearm will discharge and also, since, a hard pull on the trigger tends to jar the whole firearm and thus affect the accuracy of the shooter.
In order to achieve this goal shooters desire to reduce the perceptible movement of the trigger to an absolute minimum point at which the gun will fire. Most shooters say they want a feel to the final pull of the trigger before firing that is similar to the breaking of a glass rod so that there is a crisp release as the firearm is discharged.
A smooth, almost effortless, pull of the trigger is desired since this will minimize any jarring of the firearm and makes it easy to determine the precise moment the firearm will discharge. In order to do this many match shooters will modify their trigger mechanisms to ensure that the mechanism is at absolute minimum engagement with the hammer of the firearm. This makes discharge of the firearm very easy. Unfortunately, this leads to a safety problem.
When the trigger mechanism has minimal engagement with the hammer it means that the firearm will readily discharge. Even the actions of carrying the firearm, of jarring the firearm, or the cycling action of the firearm after discharge could cause an unwanted discharge or an additional subsequent discharge. This, to put it mildly, is highly undesirable and creates a danger of serious injury or loss of life.
The present invention greatly reduces the probability of accidental firearm discharge while at the same time providing the firearm with desired trigger action characteristics. Shot to shot consistency of pull weight and travel is insured without abnormal manipulation or motion between shots. Also, the present invention makes the structure of the receiver of a semi-automatic weapon sufficiently different from the automatic weapons upon which the semi-automatic firearm is based so that it is much more difficult to convert the semi-automatic firearm to an automatic firearm.
While it is impossible to absolutely prevent a determined individual from illegally converting a semi-automatic firearm to an automatic firearm, the present invention makes it necessary for the person attempting the conversion to have a much greater level of skill to accomplish that conversion than is currently necessary.
The inventor knows of no prior art that discloses the unique and simple design of the present invention.